The Mighty Mouse - a Great Disappointment

Posted: December 22nd, 2006 | Author: telcor | Filed under: Information Technology (IT), Miscellaneous, Work | No Comments »

My workplace recently bequeathed a G5 Mac to me, my first “real” Apple computer. With it came two mice:

  • A mighty mouse
  • A wireless mighty mouse

After using the Mighty Mouse for a couple months, I can honestly say this is the worst mouse design I’ve everused. Oh, don’t get me wrong, aesthetically, the mice are very appealing. My Microsoft and Logitech mice cannotcompete with the smooth curves and the simple lines of the Mighty Mouse. The Mighty Mouse is somewhat comfortable, albeit a little on the small sideHowever, the Mighty Mouse is a very poor performer. What do I mean by this?

The Mighty Mouse is not designed to be functional. Consider the buttons. It has a total of four buttons:

  • Left Mouse Button (LMB)
  • Center Mouse Button (CMB)
  • Right Mouse Button (RMB)
  • Side “Squeezable” Button (SSB)

The first three require precise placement of the fingers inorder to work properly, except for the left mouse button (note: I’m using the mouseright-handed). More often then not, when I attempt a RMB Click, the mouse produces a LMB Click. Only after several attempts do I obtain a RMB Click. Thisalso happens, although with less frequency, when I attempt a CMB Click. It’s always the LMB Click the mouse generates. It happens with both mice. The SSBsare merely a joke. Attempting to use them is an exercise in finger contortions that usually result in generating LMB or RMB Clicks before a SSB Click.

After more than two months of this, I’m returning to my Logitech mouse, which never gave me such issues. Please Apple, make your hardware functional aswell as aesthetic.


The New Turbo Products

Posted: August 8th, 2006 | Author: telcor | Filed under: Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Recently, Borland announced the revival of their “Turbo” line of products. This was the line of products that made the company famous, in the day. TurboPascal, then TurboC, TurboBasic and other languages. Inexpensive, powerful development environments and toolkits.

Anyway, you can find more details elsewhere. What struck me is how humorous their TuborExplorer website is. Each product page is obviously made from a template. I don’t mean just the layout and color scheme, which is expected. I’m talking about the content. Go ahead, look for yourself. Compare the TurboDelphi page with the TurboC++ page. Only the products names are different. Nice. Makes the entire site feel like one giant press release.